COUNTDOWN TO DOOM: South Korea Prepares To Evacuate DMZ Citizens; Will North Korea Fire On Balloons & Start WW3?

South Korea is preparing to evacuate more than 800 residents along the demilitarized zone after North Korea threatened to fire on activists planning to send balloons across the border carrying leaflets critical of the communist regime.

Citizens residing within the civilian control line will be evacuated if any North Korean movements for a possible attack are spotted, Park Kwang Hae, an official at Paju City Council, said by phone late yesterday. No evacuation orders are in place currently, he said.

A group of South Korean organizations plans to send 200,000 leaflets by balloons near the demilitarized zone at 11 a.m. today, according to Park Sang Hak, leader of the Fighters for Free North Korea, one of the event’s hosts. The threat of an attack against activists is the first since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un succeeded his fatherKim Jong Il in December. The activists sent balloons carrying leaflets on five occasions since the younger Kim’s ascension, Park said Oct. 19.

North Korea’s army will conduct a “merciless military strike” if any move to drop leaflets is detected, according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 19. South Korea’s military is prepared to “completely destroy” the origin of a North Korean attack if it occurs, Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin told lawmakers the same day.

The Western Front Command of the Korean People’s Army released the following notice on Oct. 19:

The Lee Myung Bak group of traitors, keen on escalating confrontation with fellow countrymen, is planning to scatter leaflets slandering the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, being unaware of its fate on the verge of ruin.

According to YTN and other media of south Korea, leaflets slandering the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and insulting the noble social system in it will be scattered from Rimjin Pavilion in Phaju City, Kyonggi Province at 11:30 a.m. on October 22.